Which Linux Distribution is Best for a Newbie?

Which Linux Distribution is Best for a Newbie?

You have no idea how I hesitated over writing this. Every Linux user has a favourite distribution, and feels that their particular choice is "the best".

The problem is that "best" can be measured in so many different ways. Some people are interested in learning about Linux, purely as a hobby. Some are looking for a low-cost OS they can use on a spare PC as a firewall for their ADSL or cable connection. Some are looking for an alternative to the Microsoft Office desktop. Some want to set up a web server. And so on, and so on . . . .

This list is by no means exhaustive - there are lots of other distributions out there, including many that I don't know about and haven't used. It's just some suggestions, based on my experience using various Linux distributions and watching students install them in my classes. And of course, I'm fully aware that by mentioning only a few of the hundreds of Linux distributions out there, I will have managed to offend all those readers who use one of the others. . .

For the curious hobbyist:

Looking to learn all about Linux and Unix, write shell scripts, hack some programs together? Then I'd suggest buying almost any of the Linux books which come with a distribution on a CD or two inside the back cover. Mandrake Linux (now renamed Mandriva) has traditionally been the distribution found here, and it's not all that bad for getting started, except that it is perhaps a little too graphical in operation to give the true flavour of Linux. One problem that can hamper learning is that the Mandriva graphical administration tool can undo edits you make manually to configuration files.

If that becomes a problem for you, then perhaps you might want to start with Mandriva, but then transition to a distribution like Slackware. Slackware is very no-nonsense and straightforward. All software is installed from a binary tarball package format or quite commonly, compiled from source, so you know exactly what you have on your system. Installation can be a little tedious and will require rather more knowledge than the Mandriva installer, which can auto-detect and configure for all kinds of hardware.

Of course, if you really want to learn all the ins and outs of the Linux operating system (as opposed to the applications that run on top of it) then you could try the Linux From Scratch Project. Following the articles here, you will build up your own Linux distribution, step by step, learning an enormous amount along the way.

Finally, many users who follow this route gravitate to Debian Linux. While Debian Linux can be intimidating for the novice to install, experienced users - one might almost call them connoiseurs - appreciate the level of control they have, as well as the way the apt-get utility makes it easy to automatically maintain the system and update software packages.

http://www.mandriva.com

http://www.slackware.com

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org

http://www.debian.org

For the non-technical home user:

I used to recommend Mandrake Linux and Lycoris Desktop/LX in this area, but Lycoris has gone, having been merged into the Mandrake/Aptiva/Lycoris entity that is Mandriva. Mandriva remains a reasonable choice for the home user. However, there's a new game in town - Ubuntu Linux is a particularly user-friendly derivative of Debian

Mandriva used to have the easiest and most automated installation process - although many Linux distributions are highly polished these days. Mandriva was the first to include a utility for resizing Windows NTFS partitions - a major stumbling block for users who have Windows 2K or XP installed on a C: drive which fills the disk.

Both the installer and the Linux distribution itself are very graphically-oriented, and Mandriva users need never deal with a command prompt if they don't want to (although it's there for those who want to explore). The KDE desktop is very polished - there are some minor strangenesses for those who have only ever used Windows, but they can be productive very quickly.

Ubuntu uses the GNOME desktop, which is less Windows-like but still very friendly (though there is a derivative project called Kubuntu, for those who prefer KDE). Perhaps the nicest feature of Ubuntu is its package management system, which allows new users to easily install applications from a large repository. Another strong point of Ubuntu is the fact that it discourages users from logging in with the root account, protecting novice users from both accidental disasters and malware which obtains root privileges.

Like Mandriva, Ubuntu has the ability to shrink NTFS partitions, making it easy to install in a dual-boot configuration. In addition, it has rapidly gained both mind-share and market-share, currently being the most-downloaded Linux distribution. This bodes well for support for novice users.

Most distributions include OpenOffice.org - an office suite comprising a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation graphics and simple database programs. The big question for most people is, how well does OpenOffice.org cope with Microsoft Office files? - since many co-workers and friends will send you those or need you to send them documents in MS Office formats. The answer is, surprisingly well; on occasions I've used OpenOffice.org to open documents that my (admittedly aging) copy of MS Office couldn't successfully open. If you're not sure whether you'd be able to get by with OpenOffice.org, the good news is that it's available for Windows as well, so you can download it, install it on Windows and see how well it works for you.

Similarly, most distributions include the Firefox web browser, which is also available - and increasingly popular - on Windows. If you're already using Firefox, you'll find it's very nearly identical on Linux.

http://www.mandriva.com

http://www.ubuntu.com

http://www.openoffice.org

Try Before You Buy

If you want to try out a Linux distribution before you set about installing software onto your hard disk, there are several "Live CD" distributions that you can try. These all boot and run from CD, and will not touch your hard drive unless you ask them to, so your existing Windows installation is quite safe.

The original and best-known Live CD distribution in Knoppix. This is based on Debian Linux with the KDE desktop; it takes a little while to boot as it probes for and configures hardware. but once it's running is surprisingly responsive. There's an excellent guide to Knoppix at http://www.pjls16812.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/knowing-knoppix/index.html.

Another interesting Live CD is Mandriva One (http://www.mandriva.com/en/community/mandrivaone), which boots off CD but is able to save and reload hardware configuration data, as well as your personal files, on a USB key. It also supports encrypted filesystems so that your data is safe even if you lose the USB key. Mandriva has now augmented this with Mandriva Flash (http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/2007/node_3481), a distribution which ships preinstalled on a 4 GB USB key. PCLinuxOS is similar, but has the added advantage of being able to install to your hard drive once you have decided you want to work that way.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/

http://kanotix.com/info/index.php

You want to set up a Web Server? A File/Print Server? A Database Server?

A tough one, here. Personally, I used to recommend Red Hat 9.0, primarily on account of the fact that it's a popular distribution with lots of support, in the form of software packages, books, training courses, articles, etc. Red Hat has a habit of being a bit different from the more 'purist' distributions (though no more so than, say, Mandrake or SuSE), but with familiarity, it's a very productive environment to work in.

I used to have several servers running different distributions: Caldera OpenLinux eServer 2.3, SuSE Linux 7.2 Professional, and others. But the effort of maintaining them all in their various ways just became too much, especially after they stopped being "experimental lab rats" and became real production servers. So I sat down and carefully decided to rationalize on one distribution, and in the end, chose Red Hat. There are nice features - many I prefer - in many other distributions, but overall, Red Hat won out. I now have five servers, sitting in a row on a KVM switch,

You might wonder, why not Red Hat 8.0? The reason is simple: Red Hat 8.0 includes Apache 2.0, which does not yet have as many modules available as the older Apache 1.3 in Red Hat 7.3. Eventually, Apache 2.0 will get there, but not quite yet.

For larger enterprises, it's worth considering Red Hat Enterpise ES or AS Server, which has all the regular Red Hat features plus additional support for larger memory, symmetric multiprocessor configurations and a higher level of support services (as it should, for the price!). Another alternative worth considering is United Linux, in the form of the SuSE Advanced Server.

Update (December 2003): Red Hat has now discontinued the Red Hat Linux product line, replacing it with "The Fedora Project", which is a community-developed and supported distribution available for free download only. While this may meet the needs of the home hobbyist, its update lifetime of 3-4 months (see http://www.redhat.com/software/rhelorfedora/) and its role as a perpetual test-bed for planned RHEL features makes it quite unsuitable for business use. Red Hat is hoping to drive business users to the Enterprise product line, but this is too expensive for many applications - especially when compared with "Professional"-level boxed sets from SuSE (now owned by Novell, with capital injection from IBM). In discussions during November 2003 with corporate Linux administrators on three continents, everyone expressed dismay with Red Hat's plans and the vast majority were planning to switch to SuSE. One can only hope that Red Hat's management come to their senses in time.

One other alternative - since Red Hat Enterprise Linux is based on open-source, GPL, software - is Centos, which is based on the RHEL source RPM's. I'm currently using Centos Linux 4.4 and 5.0 on many of the machines around our office. White Box Linux is a similar project derived from RHEL.

http://www.redhat.com

http://www.suse.com

http://www.centos.org

http://www.whiteboxlinux.org

You want to set up a Firewall/DNS/DHCP Server or other Infrastructure Server?

My personal philosophy here is to use Red Hat (or more recently, CentOS), since I can easily incorporate it into my multiple-server setup. However, if you're not going to get any benefit from that particular economy of scale, then there are lots of specialized distributions for those applications, particularly as firewalls. Some of these distributions are so small that they can be fitted on a single floppy disk. Sentry Firewall consists of a complete firewall based on Linux, which boots off a CD-ROM and reads its configuration files off a write-protected floppy disk (which is, of course, edited on your desktop system). An attacker simply cannot install a rootkit or any other "trojan" programs on a CD-ROM!

Some of these distributions require considerable knowledge of the Linux kernel, startup scripts and system configuration. Others are very novice friendly and you can simply load them and go.

http://www.ipcop.org/index.php

http://www.astaro.com/

http://www.e-smith.org/

http://www.smoothwall.org/home/

http://www.sentryfirewall.com/

http://www.shorewall.net/

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